[NTH]

Although Stalin's USSR didn't technically believe in a deity, it still has many religious elements:

* Violently throwing out competing religions, like Christianity

* Belief in a single god-king (Stalin)

* Total faith in the power of communism as the most perfect solution to the world's problems

* Harsh punishments handed out to those who question the orthodoxy (gulags)

* Obsessed with submission of the individual before an institution

Blind, violent faith in bad ideas could reasonably be blamed for a vast amount of the world's problems.

[sukuriant]

s/faith/{dedication, ferver}; and even if faith is an acceptable term there, faith != religion.

[CamperBob2]

Again: same bug, different exploit.

[sukuriant]

passion?

[CamperBob2]

Something like that. Look carefully at the roots of the word "passion." It involves suffering and sacrifice.

[NTH]

maybe not "passion" per se, but the bug is people's willingness to believe things on insufficient evidence because it gives them a sense of purpose or binds them to a bigger group.